Thursday, May 16, 2013

Crazy Davy Carter, the House speaker who is a potential Republican candidate for governor, won headlines all over today for remarks at a legislative conference in Hot Springs that Republicans need to move beyond guns and abortion to focus on issues more important to average Arkies.

This from a man who voted for all the fetus and firearm legislation, some of it patently unconstitutional, approved in the recent legislative session.

You could look it up. In the context it means you haven't heard the last of gun waving, fetal fascination, gay bashing or force feeding of religion from Arkansas Republicans and I think Carter is smart enough to know it, but was playing to the press peanut gallery.

(Oh, OK, I won't make you look it up: "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.")

I have actually developed a contrarian view of legislative events of late. It is that there's been entirely too much focus — by me and others — on the social issue claptrap that generated so much heat. The bigger story of the legislature was the fundamental reordering of government begun swiftly and forcefully by the new Republican majority. Executive power was diminished. Tax cuts were tailored almost exclusively to benefit the wealthy (Crazy Davy's blanket exemption on capital gains for the very wealthiest transactions gets the Walton Family MVP trophy). The adoption of Obamacare masked an attack on conventional Medicaid that will have devastating impact in years to come if the so-called private option falters. The legislative auditing arm is being put to use in political vendettas. Republican lobbying was critical in defeating a bill that would have prevented the forced retirement of some older judges Republicans like Rhonda Wood wanted to see go home to make room for their ascension. Through "special language," which is a democracy-defying trick, a private company that makes millions off serving home schoolers got a huge windfall (thanks, Johnny Key). The Walton-financed attack on the public schools didn't advance as far as their lobbyist Luke Gordy hoped, but they have the money and will to play the long game. There was much more organic damage, particularly in election process tinkering aimed at depressing turnout by Democratic constituencies. Republicans would have neutered the attorney general's office, but pulled back in part because they realized they might control that office someday, too.

All in all, I kind of wish the session really HAD been all about guns and fetuses. Bad as that legislation was, it was mostly sound and fury signifying little. The abortion bills will be struck down in court. We already had law and constitution heavily weighted against women's medical rights. Similarly, Arkansas already was about as permissive as possible on gun law. Advances in gun nuttery were mostly on the margins, except for the legal trick bag by which the zanies think they've totally deregulated weapon carrying. Maybe they did. It's still of far less concern than the tectonic movement toward a strangled government run for the wealthy without regard for women's rights; ethnic, racial, religious or sexual minorities, or, of course, Democrats. Speaker Carter was on board with all this, by the way, so you'll excuse me if I grab the salt when I read the wide-eyed accounts of his moderation.

But more bodacious than Carter was Rep. John Burris, who asserted that Democratic legislators really wanted the Medicaid expansion to fail and had worked to that end. It was left to Democratic Rep. Fred Love to inject honesty and salient facts into the discussion. How, he noted, can you say Democrats worked to defeat legislation that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM VOTED FOR?

Faith has always trumped facts in the Republican order of battle. Prepare for more.

The latest numbers from the Department of Human Services show thousands more people did not meet the reporting requirement on work hours in July to meet Medicaid eligibility standards.

Vincent Tolliver, a candidate for Little Rock, mayor, has written legislators asking the Senate Education Committee to ask Education Commissioner Johnny Key to testify about problems encountered by parents on Monday, the first day of school in the state-run Little Rock School District.

Speaking of Donald Trump and in answer to a reader's question: There will be a women's march in Arkansas on Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, as well as the national march planned in Washington.

The group is not affiliated with the official "Reflections of Progress" commemoration of the 60th anniversary. However, at least two of the Little Rock Nine may be joining the group for an event at 2:30 p.m. at the state Capitol in the Old Supreme Court Chamber.

It was not even 24 hours ago that Sophia Said, director of the Interfaith Center; City Director Kathy Webb and others decided to organize a protest today of Donald Trump's executive order that has left people from Muslim countries languishing in airports or unable to come to the US at all — people with visas, green cards,a post-doc graduate student en route to Harvard, Google employees abroad, families. I got the message today before noon; others didn't find out until it was going on. But however folks found out, they turned out in huge numbers, more than thousand men, women and children, on the grounds of the state Capitol to listen to speakers from all faiths and many countries.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill have refused to participate in TV debates scheduled in September.

Chintan Desai, the Democratic candidate for 1st District Congress, just dropped by with some news: An endorsement, a debate date and a celebrity visitor for his Republican incumbent opponent, Rep. Rick Crawford.

A lawsuit was filed today in the federal court for the District of Columbia challenging Arkansas's work requirement for many Medicaid recipients.

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights legend, will visit Little Rock Sunday afternoon for a fund-raiser for state Rep. Clarke Tucker, the Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress against Republican Rep. French Hill.